Apple Maps launches new ways to navigate and explore the world
Now, users can explore thousands of hiking trails in U.S. national parks, from Acadia in Maine to Yosemite in California and Denali in Alaska, right on their iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. To help you choose the perfect hike, you can sort trails by type, length, and elevation, and follow step-by-step directions to stay on track. You can even download trails to use offline and sync them to your Apple Watch. Plus, Apple Maps now offers shuttle schedules for select parks, like Bryce Canyon and Sequoia.
You can explore a huge selection of hikes in America's national parks right from your iPhone. | Image credit – Apple
Apple Maps is the best way to navigate and explore the world, and we’re excited to make that experience even better for our users with today’s updates. Maps makes it easy and enjoyable to plan any trip, with beautiful, detailed, and useful features that only Apple can deliver.
– Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Services, September 2024
You can create and save custom hiking and walking routes. | Image credit – Apple
Plus, with the new Places Library on your iPhone and iPad, you can save all kinds of places—from map guides and curated national park hikes to your own personalized itineraries—and even take personal notes on each one.
On your iPhone, you can now save places to an all-new Places library. | Image credit – Apple
The search experience has also been improved, allowing you to quickly find and compare places. From the search page, you can browse photos, ratings, and price points. Plus, the redesigned “Search Here” button makes it easier to explore a specific area for nearby gems, like restaurants and cafes.
In my opinion, all of these new features really improve the user experience on the app, especially the ability to create custom hiking and walking routes. And I think it's great to see Apple stepping up its efforts with Maps, especially given the stiff competition from Google Maps and Waze.
